Counter
The outlook on Hollywood's labor front is getting murkier.
The news that Nick Counter, longtime prexy of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, will retire as of March 31 adds to the uncertainty surrounding relations between the creative guilds and the majors.
Counter's departure -- which had been something of an open secret --comes on the heels of news that Peter Chernin is leaving his post as prexy-chief operating officer of News Corp. as of June 30. In recent years Chernin has been by far the most active of the moguls in tackling labor issues, as evidenced by the crucial role he and Disney CEO Robert Iger played in hammering out difficult agreements last year with the DGA and the WGA when the latter was on strike.
With Chernin presumably taking himself out of the trenches of guild negotiations -- it's been noted that he and Iger have yet to intervene substantially in SAG's extended contract stalemate that began last year -- the burden of playing statesman falls more heavily on Iger. Sony Pictures chief Michael Lynton, Warner Bros.' Barry Meyer and CBS Corp.'s Leslie Moonves are also seen as possible influential forces in the next round of WGA and DGA bargaining when their respective contracts come up in 2011.
The AMPTP's future as a collective bargaining unit is hardly crystal clear either, since no final decision's been made as to Counter's successor. Friday's announcement of his retirement noted that a search is under way for a replacement. Counter's been AMPTP president since 1982 and been chief negotiator on 311 labor deals.
For now, Carol Lombardini, exec veep and Counter's longtime No. 2, will serve as acting president. She is also believed to be a candidate for the top job.
Lombardini's expertise is in the drafting and interpretation of contract language, while Counter has focused on negotiations and strategy, which is a complex task given the different priorities for the congloms that dominate the AMPTP.
No matter who takes the helm of the AMPTP, the task of carrying out the policies set by the congloms has become more complex due to the ongoing consolidation and restructuring of the biz amid the volatile expansion of digital platforms. The AMPTP negotiates 80 industrywide collective bargaining agreements on behalf of more than 350 member companies, including the production entities of the studios, broadcast networks and some of the cable networks and independent producers.
After the 1988 writers strike, the low-key Counter helped maintain labor peace in Hollywood for much of his tenure at the AMPTP. But he became a much-vilified figure during the WGA's 100-day walkout that ended in February 2008. His tough stance on new media and strategy of pursuing the controversial notion of shifting all residual formulas to a recoupment-based formula was widely seen as helping to solidify the resolve of WGA members to support the strike.
More recently, the AMPTP has struggled to reach a deal with SAG amid the volatility of the union's leadership and the swift decline of the economy in the nine months since the thesps' previous pact expired.
SAG's national board members replaced both national exec director Doug Allen and their negotiating committee earlier this year, leading to the expectation that a deal would subsequently emerge. But the negotiations broke down Feb. 19 over the issue of when SAG's contract would expire.
SAG's signaled it's willing to accept the AMPTP's "last, best, final" offer, but it's also insisting that the deal must expire on June 30, 2011 -- three years after its current contract expired -- because it needs to remain aligned with the WGA, AFTRA and DGA expirations.
The AMPTP is insisting the SAG deal has to last a full three years from ratification, taking the expiration to at least March 2012, because it needs the guarantee of as much stability as possible with the thesp guild.
Contact Dave McNary at
dave.mcnary@variety.com